"Shut up!"
Xu Junying uttered two words in a deep voice, slowly approached, and stared at Li Zhao: "What do you want to say?"
Li Zhao was usually a little afraid of this elder brother-in-law who looked so dignified without even getting angry. At this moment, he was even more frightened by his cold gaze. He lowered his head slightly, clasped his hands and said, "Li Zhao knows he was wrong! I have nothing to say!"
Xu Junying looked around and saw bloodstains on the ground. It was clearly visible that Xu Xiaojuan was really cruel. He didn't know how many servants she had injured.
He said calmly, "I don't know where you went wrong. Your wife hit him so hard because she was really angry. Can you tell me what it was about?"
Li Zhao's face flushed red, and he dared not speak. Xu Junying said in a cold voice: "You are still living in the Hou Mansion, yet you dare to be so greedy for women and have sex with everyone. What do you think of your wife, the eldest aunt of the Hou Mansion? Although it is normal for men to take concubines and maids, it is not right without the permission of their wives!"
Seeing that her brother was backing her up, Xu Xiaojuan raised her head and snorted at Li Zhao. Li Zhao lowered his head even more, and even his ears turned red.
"If the wife is not virtuous, the house will not be peaceful. You are also at fault!"
Xu Junying glared at his sister. "Madam taught you a lot when you were little, but you are just so talented! You don't pay attention to your husband and children all day long. What are you thinking about? You are a bad housekeeper. You live in your mother's house and allow such a thing to happen. Who do you blame? Just your little family has made the whole mansion full of smoke and dust. How shameful!"
Xu Xiaojuan lowered her head in shame: thinking about it, it was indeed her negligence. When she was in Jiangyuan, she didn't even have a roommate. When she returned to the capital to live in the mansion, Li Zhao even took in a concubine and secretly took in two little girls...
Xu Junying turned to Li Zhao and said in a more relaxed tone: "Once a girl gets married, she will take her husband's surname and become yours. If she doesn't respect the rules of your Li family, you can punish her according to the family rules!"
Xu Xiaojuan was stunned, looking up at her brother in a daze. Xu Junying looked at his sister, and seeing her face was very similar to Madam Zheng, he seemed to see the shadow of Zheng Meiyu again. He felt inexplicably irritated, looked away, and said to Li Zhao:
"Since you are married, you must respect each other and spend your life together. I know the old lady gave you a concubine, she is young and beautiful, a gift from the elders, you can keep her, but no matter what your future holds, if you dare to betray your wife and favor your concubine, you should know the consequences!"
Li Zhao lowered his head and replied: "Li Zhao remembers! A wife is a wife, and she should be respected... I will only have this one concubine, and there will be no more!"
Xu Xiaojuan began to cry, and Xu Junying stopped her:
"Don't cry! You have done so many things that have affected the family during the time you have been here, and you still have the nerve to cry! Fortunately, my wife is ill and bedridden. If she saw you like this, she would be dead - angry to death! In the past, you didn't respect your elder sister-in-law, which means you didn't take me, your elder brother, to heart. I am too lazy to say anything more. You are from the Xu family, and the Xu family will still support you. Just take the child and live a good life with your son-in-law!"
Xu Xiaojuan heard this and felt something was wrong. As expected, she saw Baoju coming and said to Xu Junying:
"Reporting to the Lord: The small house in Lianzi Lane in the north of the city has not been damaged too much, but the trees have grown taller and there are more weeds. We can move in and live there after we have cleaned it up!"
Xu Junying said, "Prepare the car! Girls, help the eldest aunt and uncle pack their luggage, and immediately send their family over to settle down. Take away the maids in the yard who are not injured, and have someone heal the injured ones!"
When Xu Xiaojuan saw her brother was about to chase her away, she burst into tears. Her legs went weak and she knelt in front of Xu Junying, reaching out to grab his robe:
"Brother! You can't be so cruel. If father were still alive..."
Xu Junying threw his robe away, and Xu Xiaojuan's hands slipped away: "If my father were still alive and saw you doing this, he would beat you to death without any mercy!"
These were not words of intimidation. Father Xu Nanping might be a loving father and filial son at home, but after arriving at the border battlefield, he became a cold-faced iron man. As a general guarding a place, he was strict with orders and rarely smiled at his eldest son Xu Junying. When he got angry and serious, no personal feelings could move him. Xu Junying once went out of the border to save people in violation of military orders out of consideration for his comrades. When he came back, he was whipped by his furious father himself. After one hundred whips, he was beaten with one hundred military sticks, leaving his body covered with bruises. He fainted before the military sticks were halfway beaten, and was rushed away by the generals in the camp. He could not recover even after half a month of rest.
His father only said one thing to him afterwards: "I would rather beat you to death than let you develop the habit of not following the rules and disrespecting military orders, and then you will ruin the lives of my soldiers in the future!"
Looking at Xu Xiaojuan who was crying loudly, Xu Junying frowned and said, "Don't be too much, shut up and don't cry! You are now the daughter-in-law of the Li family, not the daughter of the Xu family. Li Zhao will take care of everything, so don't worry and let him do whatever he wants! The house in Lianzi Lane in the north of the city is given to you, and there are ten thousand taels of silver notes to subsidize your expenses for the next two years. These maids are also given to you. From now on, you are not allowed to enter the mansion at will, and you will not be seen even if you come! Just live a good life in the Li family. If there is anything you don't like, someone will naturally be sent to deal with it for you. Li Zhao must study hard from now on. If you have any problems, you can find Lao Liu. If you pass the imperial examination in two years, it will be your fame and talent. If you fail, you will return to Jiangyuan. I warn you here: I will never recommend you for an official position!"
Xu Xiaojuan wiped away her tears and said, "I am also a descendant of the Hou Mansion, and a direct descendant like you. You recommended officials for your fourth and fifth brothers, so why didn't you recommend Li Zhao?"
Xu Junying narrowed his eyes and looked at her: "Because..."
He paused and looked sideways at Li Zhao: "Do you think I should recommend you an official position?"
Li Zhao's face flushed, and he bowed: "I will follow your instructions, Master, and study hard to pass the exam with my real talent and knowledge!"
Xu Junying nodded: "I hope you can do it! Otherwise, when you return to Jiangyuan in two years, the situation will be desolate and no one will see you off!"
At this time, Ruihong, a maid from Jinhua Hall, came over with two maids, bowed to Xu Junying, and handed over several documents in her hands:
"This is the indenture of Hongyu, Luyu and several maids. The old lady said to give it to the eldest aunt. She can do whatever she wants with it, but she is not allowed to come to Jinhua Hall anymore!"
Xu Xiaojuan covered her face and burst into tears. Even the old lady despised her. Her last hope was shattered. Li Zhao was secretly relieved. What he was most worried about was Hongyu and Luyu. These two little girls were smart and clever, and he loved them very much. They were already his roommates. If he didn't take them away, he would feel uneasy.
Before Li Zhao received the indenture document, Xu Junying reached out and took it, flipped through it, pulled out two of them, and stuffed the rest into Xu Xiaojuan's hand:
"It is also your dowry girl. You can take the red and green jade with you. Leave the documents here! If you need them in the future, come back and tell the housekeeper to ask him to find your sister-in-law and give them to you!"
After all, she is his own sister. No matter how annoying she is, he doesn't want to be bullied. Li Zhao is a romantic man. The old lady foolishly gave him a concubine, and now he has two more maids who are his concubines. You can tell from his expression that he is nervous about the two little girls. Xu Junying has seen Xu Junlang beat and scold Bai Jingyu for favoring his concubine. Xu Xiaojuan is a foolish person, not even half as good as Bai Jingyu. In order to prevent Li Zhao from punishing her, she has to remind Xu Xiaojuan that with the two maids in hand, she may be able to compete with Li Zhao. As long as he favors his concubine, he will force him to sell his maid. Xu Xiaojuan is not Bai Jingyu. Meimei said that Bai Jingyu is wholeheartedly devoted to Xu Junlang, so he is reluctant to sell his maids. Xu Xiaojuan is heartless, but she can do this.
Li Zhao saw Xu Junying taking away Hongyu and Luyu's indentures, but he could do nothing about it. As long as he could take the people away, he would just let it go.
Xu Junying handed the document in his hand to Cuixi, signaled Baoju to send them out of the house, and then took Heng'er away.
Xu Xiaojuan had no choice but to cheer up and pack up her belongings with the maids. Li Zhao went to ask someone to invite a doctor to treat Hongyu and Luyu's injuries. He discussed with Baoju to prepare a separate carriage for the two seriously injured maids to lie down. He then rushed to the wing room and coaxed Xiangying to get up to pack her own things. Then he took the two maids back to the study and gathered and tied up all the books. Baoju called the guards of the Hou Mansion to put them on the carriage. They were busy until the afternoon. The kitchen sent over a large table of extremely sumptuous food. Xu Xiaojuan knew that the Hou Mansion had prepared it as a farewell party for her. She and Li Zhao took the two children and finished the meal with tears in their eyes. They put away the ten thousand taels of silver notes, the house deeds, and the maid's indentures, and were led out of the Hou Mansion through the side door by Baoju. On the way, Xu Xiaojuan wanted to go back and see her mother again, but Baoju said:
"Mr. Hou said: There is no need to see it again. It will be the same even if you see it. When the Madam gets better one day and misses the eldest aunt, she will naturally bring her back to see her!"
Xu Xiaojuan sighed and looked back repeatedly. Li Zhao pulled her and said, "Let's go quickly. You didn't appreciate the good life you had living in there. Now you've been kicked out. There's no turning back. It's all in vain!"
Xu Xiaojuan shook off his hand: "It's all because of you! If you weren't so lustful and promiscuous, how could I, how could I end up like this?"
Li Zhao stared at her for a long while, then waved his sleeves and said, "That's unreasonable! What did my elder brother-in-law just say? The most important thing is that you don't respect your elder sister-in-law! I have advised you so many times, but you just don't want to listen. Think about what you do on weekdays. How can you be a well-educated lady? You are clearly an ignorant and stupid woman from the village! Today you are even worse, beating and killing slaves, treating human lives as ants. If I had known you were such a vicious person, I..."
Xu Xiaojuan said, "What are you going to do? You haven't even left the Xu family's house yet. The house you are going to live in is also under my name. I support you, your children, and your concubine. How dare you be rude to me?"
Li Zhao looked at her with disdain: "I won't use your money from tomorrow! Jiang Yuan's family has their own money to send to me. So what if I don't live in your house? I, Li Zhao, won't end up living on the streets of Beijing!"
"You!" Xu Xiaojuan stopped and pointed at him, shouting in panic and anger: "I want to go see my brother! I'll let him come and talk to you!"
Li Zhao sneered, "Don't worry! The Li family has no power, is weak and declining, and naturally dares not offend the Hou Mansion. I remember what your brother said. No one can move your position as the head grandmother and mistress! Even if your brothers are not watching, I can't do anything to you. You are my first wife and have given birth to my Li family's descendants. Why should I bother with you? This is how I will spend my life - go quickly, don't waste time, you still have to pack your luggage when you get back. You beat the two girls like that, who will help me now? I don't know how to arrange my study!"
Xu Xiaojuan wanted to cry but had no tears. She followed Li Zhao, walked out of the side door of the mansion in great grief and anger, got on the car and left. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets on Qidian. Your support is my greatest motivation.) (To be continued)